Jefferson City, Missouri – A Missouri Circuit Court judge held that the health care provider did not violate two state laws related to legislative funding.
Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker made the decision Monday in favour of the Missouri Department of Social Services, as well as the Hannibal Regional Health System.
The lawsuit filed by Atlanta, Missouri, in September 2024 by resident Tina Binder alleges that the state legislature awarded $15 million in funds to the Hannibal area.
Binder alleged that HRHS was a healthcare facility and therefore violated the law.
According to court documents, the money outlined in the 2011 House Bill is not for “capital expenditures for healthcare facilities.”
The term “healthcare facility” is defined under the required legal certificate, as a long-term care bed or as a new long-term care hospital.
Neither the radiation tumor center nor the new linear accelerator that treats cancer with radiation meets this definition, according to the ruling.
Furthermore, since fraud is not necessary before the state legislature's budget, the funds did not violate Section 197.355, RSMO.
The money was made “explicitly and explicitly” against the DSS, not the Hannibal region.
Judge Walker also found that the Hannibal area is located in multiple counties with multiple clinics and that the plaintiff (binder) could not prove that the Hannibal area was unable to meet the accounts of the recipients of the funds.
Judge Walker lifted a temporary restraining order that banned the DSS from taking steps to provide funds allocated to the Hannibal area.
KTVO will be speaking with HRHS CEO Todd Arlens on Tuesday.
We also reached out to Binder's attorney Charles Hatfield for comment.
